Do the Twins Want a Platoon Behind the Plate?

[tarheeltwinsfan]

1 hour ago, Rosterman said:

It's the era where you are glad if a catcher can play 80-90 games behind thje plate. The rare one might play upwards of 120 games. So you need a strong bench support.

And with new rules, have to worry about the ability to do quick pitch communication, as well as a possible new emphasis on base stealing.

There's not much out there to purchase, little to trade, and the prospect pool is two years away (and that is for someone getting feet wet as a backup).

Someone has to make outs in a lineup. But you need someone who can actually catch and throw.

 

Who decides what pitch the Twins pitcher is to throw next? How is that communicated?

[tarheeltwinsfan]

5 hours ago, Kipp35 said:

Hall of Famer, Mike Piazza couldn't do any of those things, but still significantly benefitted his team(s).

I understand, but I prefer a good fielding catcher. 

[roger]

On 11/1/2022 at 2:36 PM, DJL44 said:

If you look at Fielding Bible stats Jeffers is basically average defensively

Fielding Bible

His arm cost the team 1 run over the course of the season. That's it. He rated higher than both Narvaez and Barnhart. The total runs saved for Arm range from Realmuto (+9) to Kevin Plawecki (-5), This is the easiest thing to measure for catcher defense BTW. You either let the runner advance or you didn't.

Looking over the free agent catchers Christian Vazquez is the cream of the crop defensively (11 runs saved overall). Narvaez (2), Sanchez (1), Contreras (-1), and Barnhart (-8) all rate lower than Jeffers.

Vazquez has a .682 career OPS vs RHP and .731 vs LHP. Jeffers is .617 vs RHP and .794 vs LHP. They complement each other pretty well. Put them together and you have a .730 OPS catcher who is a plus defender.

Very interesting.  Don't know how much faith one should put into this data, sure seems like Luis Arraez should be the Twins first baseman for the next decade.